


One Hundred Yesterdays (Part 5)

by QuietDarkness



Series: Simplicity and Complexity (Harrisco) [23]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, harrisco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 23:01:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11091723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietDarkness/pseuds/QuietDarkness
Summary: Barry and Jesse find what they need to cure Harry, but at an unknown cost. Zero Point takes his chances and returns to Earth-1, rediscovering his powers and thirst for revenge. And out of the quiet, the intriguing and mysterious Watcher returns. All hell might just break loose...'Opposites don't just attract. They catch fire and burn the entire city down.'(Part 23)





	One Hundred Yesterdays (Part 5)

_'My father didn't tell me how to live. He lived and let me watch him do it.' -Clarence Kelland_

* * * 

_Every little girl looks at her father like Superman. He can do no wrong and there is no force stronger than his will. Every teenage girl looks at her father as an over protective nuisance, and yet still the easiest shoulder to cry on. The older she got, the more Jesse knew that Harrison Wells was not what most people would picture a father to be. And yet, he was the example she unconsciously judged all other men by. He was the example she lived her own life by. Where other little girls were playing with dolls and makeup, Jesse played with bunsen burners and test tubes. Where other fathers had their wives to help raise their children into functioning adults, she'd just had her stoic and rigid Dad. And as far as Dads went, she never knew how different he actually was until she'd gotten to high school._

_Being a child genius was hard on Jesse at first. She had very few friends her own age, and more often than not would come home crying because so few people understood her. And then one day, Harrison Wells took her aside and and told her the one thing that would stick with her for the rest of her life._ 'You shouldn't worry so much about what they think, Jesse. People are stupid. And some day, they'll be answering to you.' _It was totally something that he would say, even now. But unlike most people, she could read between the lines of her father's words. He was really saying,_ 'I believe in you.' _That was the moment she knew she had the greatest father alive._

_He could be rough and angry, he could be frustrating and bossy, he could be overprotective and overbearing. But he never gave up on her. He always encouraged her. Always believed in her. He always, always loved her. It reminded her of a quote she read in a 'Father's Day' card. 'My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: He believed in me.'_

_When she'd been held captive by Zoom, there was a horrible stretch of time she'd thought he'd abandoned her, that he had stopped trying to find her. And in thinking that, she'd given up on him. When he and the others finally rescued her, the guilt of having thought such awful things about him had eaten at her. Finding out Zoom tortured him relentlessly during her captivity was even worse. He'd suffered in silence, doing everything he could to get to her. To stop Zoom. To bring her home. And what had she done? Cursed his name, lost hope, even convinced herself to hate him a little. She'd been so wrong. And when she cried out her shame, admitted her guilt to him, he wasn't even angry. All he did was smile and hold her._

_It was just further proof that her father wasn't like other fathers, and definitely not like most men. He was so hard on the world, but he was also so damn strong. The things he survived were astounding. And he never lost hope. He never gave up. He pushed through the worst to hold on to the best and lived as an example of what real fortitude was. Sometimes it was easy for Jesse to take for granted how badass Harrison Wells actually was. But then things would remind her, humble her, awe her. Like this place._

_Earth-714 was as gray and wet and unforgiving as he'd described. Even in daytime, it was miserable. And knowing what he had said about the nights, that was saying something. All manner of predators roamed the night time. Quite a few of which he'd had painfully unfortunate run-ins with. Jesse knew about the scars, knew about all the times her Dad had been hurt here. She'd read Caitlin's notes. With every piece she put together of her father's time in this place, Jesse's heart hurt more and more._

_She and Barry had made pretty good time, trying not to waste the daylight, and had stopped only when they'd come across gray and damp bones of some sort of animal. Probably a deer by the looks of it. It had been stripped clean of all meat and flesh. There were sharp and deep teeth marks on almost every bone. Some had even been snapped into splinters, as though something really wanted to get to the marrow within. The bones looked fairly old. But really, with the way the rain seemed to be coming down all the time so steadily, these could be far more recent than they appeared. She felt Barry staring at her, and she glanced at him._

"He's gonna be okay, Jesse." _Barry said in that reassuring way of his that normally she appreciated. But right now, it just made her feel worse. She looked back down at the bones, shaking her head a little._

"All he went through, everything that happened to him here..." _She took in a deep breath, letting it out as she shrugged the strap of the pulse rifle a little higher up on to her shoulder._ "He didn't deserve it. And he doesn't deserve what's happening now, either." _She said almost angrily, stepping over the bones and moving on. Barry followed easily enough. They could hear moving water in the distance, and they were trying to narrow in on the sound._

"Of course he doesn't." _Barry responded, sounding slightly confused, reaching forward and gently grabbing Jesse's arm to stop her._ "Where's this coming from?"

 _For a moment, she grit her teeth, then she shook her head, closing her eyes briefly before looking back at him, the threat of tears burning her stare._ "He's been through so much, ya know? And he never complains. He never blames anyone. He just takes it and takes it and it isn't fair." _She explained the best she could._ "We're different, right? You and me and the others, we see Dad for who he is. But the rest of the world... worlds, even," _she waved a hand idly,_ "They see him as some sort of monster because of what Thawne did or because of the mistakes he made on my Earth. And he takes that, too. It doesn't make sense! Why doesn't he get angry?! Why doesn't he just... blame someone other than himself for a damn change?! And what is with the multiverse constantly coming down on him and punishing him like this?!" _She raised her voice, wiping angrily at a tear that escaped. Barry gave her a quiet, knowing look. Then he placed a hand on her shoulder. She covered her mouth a moment, stifling a sob as her chest ached. More tears escaped. When she dropped her hand, she stepped into Barry who hugged her easily._ "I can't lose my Dad." _She whispered, not fighting the tears._

"Your Dad," _Barry said gently, Jesse lifted her head and stood back a step to look at him,_ "Is pretty much the strongest man I know. Hands down." _He smiled a little,_ "After Zoom broke my back, I felt like an absolute failure. I felt like I'd let everyone down. The city, my friends... everyone. But your Dad, he just chucked a screwdriver at me and told me that I was still strong. I yelled at him." _He looked a little embarrassed but continued,_ "He just stood there and took it, then walked right up to me and said that strength doesn't come from what you can do. Strength comes from overcoming the things you thought you couldn't." _Barry smiled then, warm with the remembrance of the moment._ "I didn't really understand what he was trying to say till later. But I've never forgotten it. A lot of the time, he ends up in the middle of the storm. He gets the guilt and the pain, but just wades right through it because it's all he's ever known. Your Dad isn't strong because he can be, he's strong because he knows he needs to be. Which is why he's going to be alright this time, too. Just like every time he's gotten the shit end of the stick. Because how else would he be the sort of guy who can throw things and still make an absurd amount of sense at the same time?"

 _Jesse chuckled a little at that, wiping a tad more gently at her face._ "Right, you're... you're right." 

"C'mon. Let's go get that water and get your Dad back to being our grumpy conscience." _Barry urged, and they picked up the pace again._

_Even in the chill, wet cold, she felt pretty warm. Moving at such a steady gait helped. So did the nervousness that was cementing itself in the back of her head. She couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. They both knew Zero Point was out there somewhere. Sure, he could be dead. But they weren't dumb enough to count on it. So both she and Barry were keeping a wary eye on their surroundings. They were following the X's carved in trees that her Dad had told them about. And she was glad he'd made them. Because literally every tree looked the same. Everywhere she gazed, it was just one panoramic image of endless gray and dead, wet trees. Getting lost would have been far too easy without a guide. The fact her Dad had enough wits to think about marking his surroundings from the start was a testament to his survival skills._

'I agree.' _A very distinct, female voice met their ears as they emerged at the edge of a very quick moving river. The water was clear and tumbling over large rocks in an effort to flow to its destination. The sound it made was both soothing and strange in the eerie quiet of the woods. But neither she nor Barry were focused on the water right at that moment. They were focused on the woman in front of them. Both of them had their weapons raised, tense and feeling slightly strange due to the fact that the woman before them was pristine. She stood out, clothed in a white summer dress and nothing else. Her skin was almost as white as the dress. Her face had no eyes, no mouth, no features. She had no hair, no ears. And it should have made her creepy as all hell. But Jesse didn't feel creeped out at all. In fact, she was lowering her weapon before she was aware of it._

"You're the Watcher." _She stated simply, Barry glancing at Jesse before he too lowered his weapon. The woman -and yes, she had a very distinctly female body despite the lack of a face, bowed her head once. A simplistic gesture._

'I am. And I know why you're here, Jesse.' _She said gently, turning her head toward Barry,_ 'Flash.' _How she was talking without a mouth was fascinating. The voice carried as though she spoke with lips and a tongue and everything else required to form consonants and vowels. It should have been impossible. And the creep factor should have been driven through the roof. But when Jesse heard her talk, saw her like this, all she felt was calm._ 'I know a great deal about you both. Your father,' _she said, turning her head back toward Jesse,_ 'Thought about you a great deal during his time here.'

"So you know what's happening then?" _Jesse nearly demanded, taking a step forward. She was choosing to ignore for now that the Watcher could obviously read minds. She felt Barry's hand on her elbow and stopped, glancing back at him._

"How do we know you're the Watcher Harry met? There could be more of you." _He stated suspiciously. And for a moment, a soft chuckle met their ears._

'Very observant of you, Flash. Yes, there are more of my kind. But I am the only one on this Earth.'

"Then why don't you look like... what Harry and Cisco said you looked like?" _Barry asked, standing next to Jesse._

'Because I felt that form would be too painful for Jesse.'

"It's..." _Jesse paused, but then cleared her throat, speaking slightly clearer,_ "Show us, please... so we know it's you."

_For a brief moment, the Watcher seemed to go still. But then she nodded, and before their eyes, a lovely and delicate face rippled easily through flesh. Blond hair pooled out of the scalp and cascaded in waves down her shoulders. And suddenly before them was Tess. But not Tess. Jesse knew that. Still, seeing her with her own two eyes was sobering, and slightly jarring._

'I will never lie to you, Jesse.' _She spoke, and this time there were lips to make the words._ 'Which is why I need to tell you that you are running out of time. You must take as much of the Source back with you as you possibly can. But what Caitlin Snow wants to do with it is impossible. The Source cannot cure Harrison Wells.'

"The Source..." _Barry mumbled, glancing toward the river,_ "You mean the water?"

"Wait, what do you mean it won't cure him?" _Jesse couldn't help the touch of panic in her voice. The Watcher gave a reassuring smile._

'What is happening to him can't be reversed, but it can be finished. If you wish to save him, you must help the Source finish the change it started. It's the only way.' 

"His cells." _Barry said softly, looking at Jesse for a moment then glancing back at the Watcher._ "You want his cells to complete the mutation the water triggered."

'Not want, no. I never wanted anything bad to happen to him. His exposure to the Source had an unanticipated affect. I didn't realize it until after he'd left. And now there is simply no undoing what has begun. To put it simply, if you do not allow him to complete the change, he will die. There is no getting around that.'

"What is the change? What did... is the water doing to him?" _Jesse demanded, moving slowly toward the river bank. She stared into the crystal clear, swirling currents. For all intents and purposes, it looked like water. Harmless, clear, fresh water._

'What it must.'

"That's not an answer." _Jesse grated out, glancing back at the Watcher._

'It is all the answer I can give, I'm afraid.' _She said, smiling still. Did she never frown? Before Jesse could say anything else, the Watcher outstretched her hand toward the river, which suddenly ceased flowing. A strange sort of spout began to rise up, into the air, disconnecting from the river, rolling itself into a ball the size of a boulder. But then it began to shrink, strange little bright blue sparks flashing at its core as it got smaller and smaller and yet never seemed to lose a drop. Until finally it was about the size of a baseball, and no longer watery looking, but more like a perfectly round and hardened crystal, with an iridescent blue light at its center. It came toward Jesse as the Watcher lowered her hand. Jesse swallowed, slightly wide eyed, reaching out and plucking it from thin air, not sure what to expect. It was cool, smooth to the touch. And not even remotely wet._ 'His time grows shorter. I wish I could explain more, but you must hurry. Back to the breach. Your friend will be opening it soon, if I'm not mistaken. And Harrison Wells will need this immediately.'

 _Jesse blinked a little, moving toward Barry and holding out the ball to him. He took it with raised brows, and Jesse turned to say something to the Watcher. But she was gone. As if she'd never even been there. And the river was once again moving naturally. Both she and Barry exchanged glances. Then she looked at the ball in his hand. She should have been afraid, should have feared whatever this change was. But selfishly, she also didn't care. If it meant her father lived, she'd take it. She'd take him, and any changes that went with him. Because nothing, no amount of pain or struggle or strife, no scars or torture or time in isolation, ever seemed to really change who Harrison Wells really was. And that was more than enough for her. She moved away from the river, stepping past Barry toward the X'd trees._ "Come on. Let's go." _She said easily, far more confident than she should have been._

_She couldn't change what had happened to her father. And she couldn't reverse what was happening. But she could save him. She could give him this Source... water... whatever it was. And whatever happened after that, they'd figure out as they went along. She had to. Because that's what her Dad would have done. He never gave up. And neither would she._

* * *

Cisco had been pacing for the better part of ten minutes. Watching the clock tick down was torture. Knowing that Harry was getting worse as the minutes went by was hell. “You're going to wear your shoes out.” Wally said, standing with his hands in his pockets, watching Cisco with some sort of grimace. “Dude, seriously.” Wally remarked, reaching out and grabbing Cisco on his next pass. 

“Sorry, right. I just...” He sighed deeply, turning his goggles in his hands. 

“I get it. But burning a track into the floor isn't going to help. Besides, we've only got...” He looked up at the monitor, “Look at that, fourteen seconds.” He grinned then, letting his hand fall from Cisco's arm. 

“YES!” Cisco nearly jumped up and down, “Yes.” He cleared his throat, then slipped the goggles on, “Get in position. Anything or anyone comes through that's not, ya know, Scooby Gang material, run them to the Pipeline, okay?”

Wally nodded, shifting on his feet, stepping back and to the side. The alarm went off, proof that the timer had gone all the way to zero. Cisco tapped the button on the console to silence it, then let out a deep breath. “Be there, be there, be there...” He muttered, then opened the breach...

* * *

_'Oh sweetie, monsters are real. And they look like people.' - Anonymous_

* * *

Going through the breach felt as strange and dizzying as the very first time he'd been thrust through one. He understood a great deal about a great many things. But the idea of other worlds, and a passage between them, had always seemed like science fiction to him. Until, of course, he was sent to this hell. As soon as the breach opened, he was there waiting. Ever vigilant. He knew it would, just didn't know when. How else would those two get home? He'd kept a wary eye out, hoping that they wouldn't need to be here for the breach to come. And his hopes had been completely answered. With handmade weapon in hand, he let out a gutteral roar and ran headfirst into the breach. 

What he saw as he exited was just as familiar, unfortunately.

The very last room he'd seen before spending months in apocalypse land. 

And that guy with the goggles and long hair, Vibe. 

“Oh shit!” he blurted out, aiming his hands at Zero Point then. Instinctively, he raised his own hands. He'd been so long without his powers that it felt like an explosion out of every pore and cell as his whole body reacted and threw gravity pulses at Vibe. He went flying, slamming into a railing. Zero Point could not have explained the sheer joy at watching that man get flung, feeling his own powers surge through him again. But then Zero Point felt himself get slammed into by something hard and very fast. A speedster, Kid Flash. Another burst of air told him that Flash was back, along with the girl, as the breach closed and Vibe yelled, “Look out!”

Great. A party.

Zero Point stood up, tossing his makeshift weapon aside. He didn't need it anymore, not on this Earth. He flexed his hands, his arms, let the power he'd missed so terribly ripple through him. And he laughed, he couldn't help it. He laughed even harder when he saw the girl speed away, something flashing blue in her hands just before she disappeared. 

Another speedster! Goody, goody.

Flash, Vibe and Kid Flash all began to form a sort of semi-circle around him. His laughter was now just a grin, terrible and angry. “Let's play.” He said simply. And then he lashed out...

* * *

_But his power never manifested. None of theirs did._

_In fact, everything in the room froze. Every person. Every molecule. Time stood still as she stepped gently between Barry and Cisco, the visage of her bare feet as silent as a ghost in snow. There was so much her kind could not do, were not allowed to do. The physical world was limited to them. But there were certain things she could manipulate. Space, minds... time. That was what Harrison Wells needed right now. Time. Just a little more of it. Because though the speedsters and Cisco were all strong, the one person who could stop Zero Point, who was meant to, was Wells. She was certain of it. The Source had chosen to change him for a reason. It had not affected Zero Point. The Source never did anything without reason, wouldn't have initiated the change in him unless there was a purpose._

_So this Watcher helped, by watching and waiting._

_Time ticked by without the others in the breach room having any knowledge of the passing. But that would only last so long. Soon nature would take over and time would come back to itself. And Fate would take its turn to decide what happens next..._

**Author's Note:**

> (To be continued...)


End file.
